The Book of Tomorrow: A Novel
By: Cecelia Ahern / Narrated By: Ali Coffey
Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
7 hours foot-stomping snits; 1 hour and 10 minutes intrigue; 15 minutes resolution… I need a drink!
My sister just asked me if getting ready for St. Patrick’s Day was driving me to drink… Uhm, maaaaaybe? And after The Book of Tomorrow, I, like the heroine, Tamara Goodwin, am feeling a desperate urge to numb out, to space my brains out.
It was included in our celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, as Cecelia Ahern is a notable Irish author, and what the hey! Let’s just go for a little contemporary fiction (now, if you wanna go for a bit of literary fiction by an Irish author, check out the STUNNING Spill Simmer Falter Wither by Sara Baume).
Okay, so here’s what happened. First, I didn’t get that actually, Teens coulda conceivably been used as a category (and ya know what? I’m gonna add that to this book!). It’s about a 16-year old girl and a very disconcerting summer of loss and desperation.
Fine, right? Maybe even the possibility of some heartrending scenes, huh?
NAH! The girl comes from unbelievable privilege, is wholly self-absorbed, and has a hair trigger temper where she stomps her foot a lot, screams sarcastic comments laced with profanity, and attacks those who don’t do or say what she wants. Ack! It’s okay for a few hours because she’s narrating it from a different vantage point: Who she is now is much kinder, more thoughtful, less abusive. It’s only that it takes HOURS for us listeners to get to where she actually shows just a tad self-awareness, a tad sensitivity about the feelings of others, the consequences of her words and actions. Hours, I tell you! HOURS!
Here’s what we’ve got. The girl and her mother are left destitute by the father/husband’s suicide and bankruptcy. They’re Dublin gals who go to live with relatives in the countryside of Meath. Tamara is bored out of her skull, thereby giving her an excuse for snooping and egregious behavior. Along the way, she stumbles upon a diary that has tomorrow’s date, tomorrow’s results of her previous day’s actions, all written in her own hand. She uses this knowledge to navigate her todays, to manipulate others and their responses, to either confirm or change what will happen.
There are secrets galore that we discover waaaaay late in the game as through the entire book, she’s just snooping to give herself something to do and because she’s just plain ornery. I loved it when another character called her Nancy Drew cuz that’s EXACTLY how she comes off: an adolescent who accidentally falls into The. Biggest. Secret. Ever! I did some pretty heavy-duty eye rolling as it’s all so improbable, even if one is being extra-specially vigilant about allowing for sooooome improbability.
The narration is top-notch by Ali Coffey, who sounds like an older and wiser woman looking back on the past. But it turns out, the past isn’t years, it’s days. So perhaps, even tho’ Coffey does tremendously well with the delivery, a younger narrator should’ve been chosen. That said, if a younger person HAD been used, I probably wouldn’t have lasted through the fifth, or sixth, or seventh, or gazillionth temper tantrum and lashing out. Seriously, Tamara is that bad.
So here I am, with the humble offering to you, dear Accomplice, with words of caution. Teens might like the book, but I was sorely disappointed that, tho’ the subject matter got a trifle heavy at the end, it was mostly youthful shenanigans, youthful tempers, youthful gross mismanagement of affairs.
Still, I did do what I intended to do and that was seek and find something by an honest to God Irish author. Just wish there was more Ireland, less youthful BS…
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